Pavel K. Baev

Pavel Baev is a nonresident senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings and a research professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). He specializes in Russian military reform, Russia’s conflict management in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and energy interests in Russia’s foreign and security policies, as well as Russia’s relations with Europe and NATO.

Baev graduated from the Moscow State University in 1979 with a master’s degree in political geography, and worked in a research institute in the former USSR Ministry of Defense. After receiving a doctorate in international relations from the Institute for the U.S. and Canadian Studies, Moscow in 1988, he worked with the Institute of Europe in Moscow until October 1992, when he joined PRIO. From 1995 to 2001 he was a co-editor of Security Dialogue, a quarterly policy-oriented journal produced at PRIO. From 2000 to 2004, Pavel was the head of the Foreign and Security Policies program. He held the NATO Democratic Institutions Fellowship from 1994 to 1996.

Baev is the author of several books, including "The Russian Army in a Time of Troubles" (SAGE, 1996) and "Russian Energy Policy and Military Power: Putin’s Quest for Greatness" (Routledge, 2008). Some of his most recent reports include Russia's Arctic Policy: Geopolitics, Mercantilism and Identity-Building, FIIA Briefing Paper, 2010; The Terrorism-corruption Nexus in the North Caucasus, PONARS Eurasia Memo, 2010; The Caspian Sea Region Towards 2025, (with Morten Anker, Indra Øverland, Bjørn Brunstad, and Stina Torjesen) 2010; What's in Store for Color Revolutions? Managing a New Rise of Discontent in a Time of Crisis, PONARS Eurasia Memo, 2010; Russian Military Perestroika, U.S.-Europe Analysis, 2010; “Staying the Arctic Course: An Offer for Cooperation that Russia Cannot Refuse,” PONARS Eurasia Memo, 2009; and “Competing Designs for Caspian Energy Highways: Russia and the EU Face Reality Checks,” PONARS Eurasia Memo, 2009.

Baev’s articles on the Russian military posture, Russian-European relations, and peacekeeping and conflict management in Europe have appeared in Armed Forces & Society, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Contemporary Security Policy, European Security, International Peacekeeping, Jane’s Intelligence Review, The Journal of Peace Research, The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Problems of Post-Communism, Security Dialogue, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, and The World Today. He also has a weekly column published in the Eurasia Daily Monitor and is the author of the blog, Arctic Politics and Russia's Ambitions.

Pavel Baev is a nonresident senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings and a research professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). He specializes in Russian military reform, Russia’s conflict management in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and energy interests in Russia’s foreign and security policies, as well as Russia’s relations with Europe and NATO.

Baev graduated from the Moscow State University in 1979 with a master’s degree in political geography, and worked in a research institute in the former USSR Ministry of Defense. After receiving a doctorate in international relations from the Institute for the U.S. and Canadian Studies, Moscow in 1988, he worked with the Institute of Europe in Moscow until October 1992, when he joined PRIO. From 1995 to 2001 he was a co-editor of Security Dialogue, a quarterly policy-oriented journal produced at PRIO. From 2000 to 2004, Pavel was the head of the Foreign and Security Policies program. He held the NATO Democratic Institutions Fellowship from 1994 to 1996.

Baev is the author of several books, including “The Russian Army in a Time of Troubles” (SAGE, 1996) and “Russian Energy Policy and Military Power: Putin’s Quest for Greatness” (Routledge, 2008). Some of his most recent reports include Russia’s Arctic Policy: Geopolitics, Mercantilism and Identity-Building, FIIA Briefing Paper, 2010; The Terrorism-corruption Nexus in the North Caucasus, PONARS Eurasia Memo, 2010; The Caspian Sea Region Towards 2025, (with Morten Anker, Indra Øverland, Bjørn Brunstad, and Stina Torjesen) 2010; What’s in Store for Color Revolutions? Managing a New Rise of Discontent in a Time of Crisis, PONARS Eurasia Memo, 2010; Russian Military Perestroika, U.S.-Europe Analysis, 2010; “Staying the Arctic Course: An Offer for Cooperation that Russia Cannot Refuse,” PONARS Eurasia Memo, 2009; and “Competing Designs for Caspian Energy Highways: Russia and the EU Face Reality Checks,” PONARS Eurasia Memo, 2009.

Baev’s articles on the Russian military posture, Russian-European relations, and peacekeeping and conflict management in Europe have appeared in Armed Forces & Society, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Contemporary Security Policy, European Security, International Peacekeeping, Jane’s Intelligence Review, The Journal of Peace Research, The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Problems of Post-Communism, Security Dialogue, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, and The World Today. He also has a weekly column published in the Eurasia Daily Monitor and is the author of the blog, Arctic Politics and Russia’s Ambitions.

This sort of development objectively puts Putin on the course of a kind of self-isolation [and] greater tension with the West, because, for the West, opposition forces in Russia [are] something very sympathetic. For Putin, it is a mortal enemy with which he can fight, with which he will fight, tooth and nail. Putin will have to use every instrument at his disposal, including presenting the whole thing as a plot by the West and the United States in particular.